Terry Venables yesterday spent a third day attempting to thrash out the necessary financial arrangements to allow him to leave Crystal Palace.
Venables spent the day locked in talks with his chairman Mark Goldberg, while the club's technical director Steve Coppell prepared Palace for tomorrow's home game with Stockport.
The length of the discussions revealed the financial complexity of Venables leaving his post. Neither man is keen for Venables to continue as manager of the 14th placed team in the First Division. But the former England coach does not want to walk away voluntarily and sacrifice his £750,000-a-year salary. Goldberg, who has a number of creditors chasing his money, is unable to provide a hefty pay-off.
The Palace training ground was a strange place yesterday, with Venables, his assistant Terry Fenwick and the club's £5 million-rated striker Matt Jansen all missing.
In their absence, Coppell, who is expected to take temporary charge of team affairs when Venables leaves, was in control.
Fenwick later surfaced at Selhurst Park and shook hands with the Palace ground staff as he departed, an act of final farewell.
The relationship between Goldberg and Venables has hit the rocks in recent weeks, with a separation increasingly likely since Sunday's 3-0 defeat at Bolton.
Goldberg, beset by money problems since buying Palace for £22.8 million, is for the first time having second thoughts about appointing Venables. "We have tried to throw money at the situation to get a team to challenge for the Premiership, but it hasn't worked," he said.
